Spectre
Contributor
From The Newport Daily News
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Sunken vessels being damaged, archaeologists say
By Matt Sheley/Daily News staff
NEWPORT - Vandalism was discovered earlier this week at a historic shipwreck site just north of the Newport Bridge where the legendary HMB Endeavour or one of several sunken Revolutionary War era vessels could be resting, state officials say.
Kathy Abbasscq, director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, said ballast stones - used to weigh down a ship to change its waterline - were pushed off the wreck and its original planking was ripped apart. Abbass said the damage was discovered Wednesday at the sunken vessel, one of many in Narragansett Bay that have been looted over the years by divers who disregard or don't know about federal and state laws that protect historic shipwrecks.
"It appears that looters were looking for artifacts and probably removed some. Whoever did this broke the law," said Edward F. Sanderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission.
Sanderson said divers have been researching the site to try to determine the identity of the ship, which could be the Endeavour. The ship, once commanded by British Royal Navy Captain James Cook, visited Newport Harbor under the name Lord Sandwich and was sunk intentionally in 1778 along with up to 10 other British transport vessels during the Battle of Rhode Island. Cook had sailed the vessel from 1768 to 1771 on his first voyage around the world.
Project divers last visited the site last fall but believe the vandalism occurred fairly recently because there was little silt on the exposed wooden structure of the ship, said Charlotte Taylor, an archaeologist with the state historical preservation commission.
The project, assisted by volunteer sports divers, is researching sites between Brenton Cove and the waters off the west coast of Portsmouth to determine the identity of the sunken ships. Taylor said that five shipwreck sites have been identified as belonging to a fleet of at least 10 sunken British transports.
Sandersoncq said his organization will seek tighter protection of such historical sites in local waters. Officials believe the damage could make the positive identification of the Endeavour that much more difficult.
"We originally planned to leave this area of Newport Harbor open for sport divers to visit these historic underwater sites as long as they did not steal artifacts," Sanderson said in a statement issued Friday. "The illegal and reckless behavior of the individual diver or divers who are responsible for this vandalism has given the entire sport diving community a black eye."
An enforcement officer with the state Department of Environmental Management said Friday that no vandalism complaint had yet been filed.
In April 1999, a federal judge gave control of wooden ship remains in the two-square-miles of Newport's outer harbor to the state preservation commission as a way to stop sport divers from pillaging those sites. The National Park Service awarded the Marine Archaeology Project a $25,200 grant through its American Battlefield Protection Program in June 2001.
Bo Williams, owner of the Let's Go Diving dive shop on Aquidneck Avenue in Middletown, has never visited the historic site. But he has heard that there's not much left of any of the sunken wrecks.
"I don't even know where the thing is, but vandalize seems like a pretty strong word to use," Williams said. "The way it's been described to me, there is nothing there other than ballast piles and that's about it."
Williams said he doubted there would be anything of value left at the site. He said divers have been unjustly blamed for years in such incidents, and banning sport diving in the area would be inappropriate.
"There are any number of scenarios of what could have happened," Williams said. "It's some rubble on the ground and maybe a lobsterman dropped a pot on it by mistake and dragged it. To me, it's much ado about nothing."
Reporter Janine L. Weisman contributed to this story.
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Sunken vessels being damaged, archaeologists say
By Matt Sheley/Daily News staff
NEWPORT - Vandalism was discovered earlier this week at a historic shipwreck site just north of the Newport Bridge where the legendary HMB Endeavour or one of several sunken Revolutionary War era vessels could be resting, state officials say.
Kathy Abbasscq, director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, said ballast stones - used to weigh down a ship to change its waterline - were pushed off the wreck and its original planking was ripped apart. Abbass said the damage was discovered Wednesday at the sunken vessel, one of many in Narragansett Bay that have been looted over the years by divers who disregard or don't know about federal and state laws that protect historic shipwrecks.
"It appears that looters were looking for artifacts and probably removed some. Whoever did this broke the law," said Edward F. Sanderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission.
Sanderson said divers have been researching the site to try to determine the identity of the ship, which could be the Endeavour. The ship, once commanded by British Royal Navy Captain James Cook, visited Newport Harbor under the name Lord Sandwich and was sunk intentionally in 1778 along with up to 10 other British transport vessels during the Battle of Rhode Island. Cook had sailed the vessel from 1768 to 1771 on his first voyage around the world.
Project divers last visited the site last fall but believe the vandalism occurred fairly recently because there was little silt on the exposed wooden structure of the ship, said Charlotte Taylor, an archaeologist with the state historical preservation commission.
The project, assisted by volunteer sports divers, is researching sites between Brenton Cove and the waters off the west coast of Portsmouth to determine the identity of the sunken ships. Taylor said that five shipwreck sites have been identified as belonging to a fleet of at least 10 sunken British transports.
Sandersoncq said his organization will seek tighter protection of such historical sites in local waters. Officials believe the damage could make the positive identification of the Endeavour that much more difficult.
"We originally planned to leave this area of Newport Harbor open for sport divers to visit these historic underwater sites as long as they did not steal artifacts," Sanderson said in a statement issued Friday. "The illegal and reckless behavior of the individual diver or divers who are responsible for this vandalism has given the entire sport diving community a black eye."
An enforcement officer with the state Department of Environmental Management said Friday that no vandalism complaint had yet been filed.
In April 1999, a federal judge gave control of wooden ship remains in the two-square-miles of Newport's outer harbor to the state preservation commission as a way to stop sport divers from pillaging those sites. The National Park Service awarded the Marine Archaeology Project a $25,200 grant through its American Battlefield Protection Program in June 2001.
Bo Williams, owner of the Let's Go Diving dive shop on Aquidneck Avenue in Middletown, has never visited the historic site. But he has heard that there's not much left of any of the sunken wrecks.
"I don't even know where the thing is, but vandalize seems like a pretty strong word to use," Williams said. "The way it's been described to me, there is nothing there other than ballast piles and that's about it."
Williams said he doubted there would be anything of value left at the site. He said divers have been unjustly blamed for years in such incidents, and banning sport diving in the area would be inappropriate.
"There are any number of scenarios of what could have happened," Williams said. "It's some rubble on the ground and maybe a lobsterman dropped a pot on it by mistake and dragged it. To me, it's much ado about nothing."
Reporter Janine L. Weisman contributed to this story.
